COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — The Coeur d’Alene School District lost $4.8 million last year because too many students missed school.
Nearly 20% of students were chronically absent, which was higher than the state average. The lost money could have paid for teachers and student services.
Every day a student is not at school, the district loses $45 in state funding. Those absences add up quickly.
“I think illness and vacation are probably the biggest ones,” said Kathleen Corbeill, principal at Winton Elementary School. “They’re missing, you know, five days, ten days, however many days, and then they get sick and then there’s like things come up. And so then those days just pile up pretty quickly.”
The financial impact affects individual schools too.
“You know, the less money the district gets, the less money we’re going to get at the building level,” said Nick Lilyquist, principal of Canfield Middle School.
Now schools are trying prizes to get students to show up. Canfield Middle School and Winton Elementary School give weekly rewards for perfect attendance.
“We do the perfect attendance week by week. They can win a Jamba Juice, they can win a candy bar, and we do weekly competitions with the grade level,” said Lilyquist.
“We have, weekly incentives for students in classrooms. We have a big mascot wolf that floats to like the highest, primary and intermediate classroom. There are treats for classrooms that they have 100% attendance in a day,” said Corbeill.
Students like the competition.
“They’re super excited and they’re like, wait for us to walk in the door, to be able to celebrate them,” said Amy Arlint, assistant principal at Winton Elementary School.
Schools are also having conversations with parents about why attendance matters.
“Because when they’re not at school, then they’re not achieving. So we’re trying to get them here. But there is the there’s definitely a financial aspect to it. And I think that awareness for parent is good,” said Lilyquist.
School officials want parents to understand how funding works and what students miss when they’re not in class.
“I think parents being more aware of how Idaho funds is really important,” said Corbeill. “And then just really talking about the impact on learning and how every day you’re missing, you’re going to kind of create a little gap in your foundational skills, especially at the elementary level.”
The programs are working. Corbeill says attendance at Winton Elementary is “definitely better than where we were at last year.”
Both schools say attendance is up and students are more engaged when classrooms are full.
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